Description

Pharmacy in Senegal explores the rise and expansion of pharmacies in Senegal in the 20th century. In Senegal, as in many African nations, the pharmacy is often the center of biomedical care, where pharmacists provide examinations and diagnoses and prescribe medicines. Donna A. Patterson notes that many pharmacists are women, which adds an important dimension to this story about medical training and the medical profession. In a health care landscape that includes traditional healers, herbalists, and Muslim healers, women pharmacists have become a mainstay of the local standard of care. Patterson provides a greater understanding of the role pharmacists play in bringing health care to the people they serve.

Author Bio

Reviews

“Tells a very important story about African access to pharmaceuticals and the development of professions, businesses, and commerce related to that access—which is not always legal.”
— Charles Ambler, University of Texas, El Paso

“Suggests a new interpretation of the role of pharmacists where, far from being minor participants and supporting actors, they instead become key players in health care delivery.”
— Kalala Ngalamulume, Bryn Mawr College

“Pharmacy in Senegal demonstrates the ways in which African state intervention—through education, formal loans, and regulation—helped empower a professional class of women and provided the public with greater access to biomedicine.”
— Karen Flint, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

“Cutting across the endless association of Africa with pandemic and global intervention, Donna A. Patterson offers a compelling account of robust, home-grown health professions that shows that the continent is firmly a part of the international medical industrial complex. What is more, women have played a major role in this development. This timely book has a great deal to teach us-not least, about innovative approaches to extending care and securing community health.”
— Jean Comaroff, Harvard University

“[P]rovides insight into the role of pharmacies in a country that also embraces traditional healers, herbalists, and Muslim healers as part of the health care team.4/3/15”
— Pharmacy Times

“Patterson . . . has written an insightful history of pharmacy education, practice, and entrepreneurship
in Senegal. ”
— Ufahamu